thank you for your time today. all right. that is all in for in evening. "the 11th hour with brian williams" is next. tonight the latest outgoing fire from the president aimed at members of his own party and his administration as he goes after senator corker's height and secretary tillerson's iq. also following the president's national security meeting today on north korea and after he declared this the calm before the storm, tonight we get a rare look inside from a journalist just back from there during a time of foreboding. plus the rolling tragedy in california. the death toll is growing and 2,000 structures just gone. a live report tonight as "the 11th hour" gets underway. >> good evening once again from our nbc headquarters here in new york. day 264 of the trump administration. and tonight the president

remains on attack with people he needs at home and around the world. it started with the president extending his public fight with secretary of state rex tillerson into day 6. in an interview with forbes magazine, the president talked about the nbc news reports that tillerson called him a moron. he said, quote, i think it's fake news, but if he did that, i guess we'll have to compare iq tests and i can tell you who is going to win. a few hours after forbes posted the interview, the president was asked about it at the white house while sitting next to former secretary of state henry kissinger. >> did you undercut the secretary of state today with the iq statement? >> no, i didn't undercut anybody. i don't undercut people. >> within an hour of that exchange, tillerson arrived at the white house to have lunch with the president. we have seen no bylines reporting in any publications as of yet about how that conversation went.

then a few hours later still, press secretary sarah huckabee sanders took questions about the seemingly conflicting messages coming from her boss. >> over the weekend, the president said that he wished his secretary of state was a little tougher, and now today he is suggesting that secretary tillerson has a lower iq than he does. my question is, why would the president want somebody who he thinks is neither tough nor particularly smart as secretary of state? >> the president certainly never implied that the secretary of state was not incredibly intelligent. he made a joke. nothing more than that. he has full confidence in the secretary of state. they had a great visit earlier today, and they're working hand in hand to move the president's agenda forward. >> working hand in hand, but new reporting from jonathan lemere at the associated press suggests president trump might be making his job more difficult. he wrote, trump's comments have threatened to undermine tillerson's diplomatic initiatives and so confusing among allies and foes whether he speaks for the u.s. and has the support for the white house.

the president's staff also took aim at senator bob corker today. he said, quote, the failing "new york times" set liddle bob corker up by recording his conversation. was made to sound a fool and that's what i am dealing with. press secretary sarah huckabee sanders also went after senator bob corker, giving a misleading account of corker's role. then she took a shot at republicans in congress in general. >> two of the president's allies has suggested that senator corker resign. does the president think senator corker should resign? >> i think that's a decision for senator corker and the people of tennessee, not for us to decide. >> the president also said this weekend that senator corker was largely responsible for the iran deal which the president has hinted that he wants to renegotiate. that was a deal that was

negotiated by barack obama's administration. why does the president think that that was largely bob corker's fault? >> senator corker worked with nancy pelosi and the obama administration to pave the way for that legislation and basically rolled out the red carpet for the iran deal. those are pretty factual. >> what do you say to critics who say that the president is alienating himself from republicans that he will need to move his legislation forward? >> i don't think he's alienated anyone. i think congress has alienated themselves by not actually getting the job done that the people of this country elected them to do. >> let's go our lead-off panel tonight, bob acosta and narrator of washington week, here in new york the a forementioned jonathan lemere. all three political analysts. a bit of old business. we should clarify, senator corker was aware of the taping

of his interview, the audiotaping with the "new york times." all right, mr. acosta, talk about what you know on both prongs of this, the president versus senator corker, the president versus secretary tillerson, and yes, this is the plot line of today. >> brian, first on the secretary of state, associates of the secretary of state tell me that tillerson has been frustrated with his position. he talked with the president on friday. he talked with general kelly over the weekend, again with the president today trying to get the relationship repaired between him and president trump. they know it's been really at odds with each other for weeks now, and for the sake of the upcoming summit with china, for the sake of the crisis that's unfolded in north korea, the white house believes it's a priority to make sure tillerson stays at least for the moment in spite of all the problems. and then when you think about senator corker, it's revealing of where the president is with

congressional republicans, a party splitting apart, a president almost more comfortable being an outsider. >> and, ashley, we say this all the time. another day in the life of this administration. so what was today about at the white house, if anything other than this? >> i think it was just about this. and you even saw that in the questions in today's briefing. i mean, a tremendous amount of time was devoted to what was going on with senator corker, what may or may not be happening behind the scenes with secretary tillerson. you just get the sense of publicly and privately the white house is spending a ton of time managing relationships that they, to be clear, should not have to be managing. this is a republican senator. this is a cabinet member who the president himself chose. they have a lot of legislative issues they could be focusing on, but today, publicly and privately, should be public matters and not personnel matters. >> and ashley, we are prepared

for something you mentioned. here is some of the questions that came up at the briefing at your white house today. >> over the weekend, senator bob corker called the white house an adult daycare center, said the president could lead the country into world war iii and said, quote, he concerns me. he would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation. over the last few months, the president has criticized a number of senior republicans, sometimes in very personal terms. >> sarah, this morning the president returned to liddle, l-i-d-d-l-e, bob corker again. >> the president says we're in the highest tax bracket in the world. why does the president keep saying this? it isn't true overall. >> is it proper for the president to attend a baseball game where they might take a knee and he will walk out if

they take that action? >> how does the president expect the secretary of state to be effective when he is questioning his intelligence? >> back to ashley for a second. ashley, can you tell our viewers how far from normal, how far off plumb this is? >> well, this is a white house press corps that at this point doesn't startle or surprise particularly easily. but there is, as you just rolled that montage, sort of a surreal quality to all of this, just the barrage and the onslaught and the type of questions they're being asked, and the extent to which the white house press secretary is having to, in public, sort of litigate half-truths, mistruths, and as you heard in one of these questions, something that has come up repeatedly in the briefing room, the president is saying something we know to be factually untrue about the tax

rate, and he continues to repeat it. so it's odd. >> jonathan lemere, this is why i love the journalists we get to talk to here tonight. you wrote about the iq comment, trump on tillerson, the remark landed with a distinct hint of malice. the truth is, for as many words as this president knows and uses, he never says anything by accident. there is a design behind everything, even if it's a seeming ad lib. >> right, and this is a president not known for his sense of humor. he knew what he was doing. this feud he has with the secretary of state who, in private, he's been bashing for weeks. he's been upset about any number of things. he was upset that the secretary of state criticized his response to charlottesville when the president said, there are good people on both sides. and tillerson came out and said, more or less the president speaks for himself and is not the moral conscience of this nation. he has told people he's upset,

that he doesn't feel tillerson is very loyal, that he doesn't defend him in public. he thinks tillerson is on the wrong side of a number of issues. the iran deal, the paris climate accord. one of the rare wins for tillerson, if you will, at this point in the administration, was maintaining the status quo and a slight increase of a number of troops in afghanistan, which you'll recall only came about after tillerson, secretary mattis and others had to have a tutorial for the president at the pentagon, explaining to him why this mattered, why it mattered that america have a robust presence across the

world. this is someone the president -- he doesn't seem at this moment like he's willing to fire him, although that could change at a moment's notice, but it seems rex tillerson is now in jeff sessions' old chair, the cabinet member who is taking an unprecedented, public scolding from his president. >> so bob acosta, we have mattis counseling the president and tillerson to stay together for the sake of the kids, in effect. on the corker front, my question to you is, anything other than a chorus of crickets following corker's interview among fellow republicans on capitol hill? >> there have always been critics for president trump. what corker is saying is he is someone who tried to build a relationship with trump during the campaign. he was even considered for a slot in the white house. for him to walk away, that shows trump allies, at least one-time trump allies are starting to walk away. but the major republicans we cover, they do remain quite quiet tonight because they still believe they need the president to get something done on tax cuts, something to put on the plate for voters in 2018. until they get that, they're going to stay mum.

>> ashley, i have to ask you, the president tweeted tonight, and this was about his chief of staff. "fake news sat it again, this time trying to hurt one of the finest people i know, general john kelly, by saying he will soon be -- long line of periods -- fired. this story is made up by dishonest media. the chief is doing a fantastic job for me, and more importantly, for the usa." ashley, what's the president reading or seeing on television now? >> i have to say that we are sort of trying to puzzle that out. i'm a little unclear, to be honest, though there have been a number of stories that have not said that general kelly is going to be fired. i don't think there is any strong evidence to support this at this point, but that are reflecting sort of the challenging relationship between these two men, which by all

accounts the president does respect general kelly in a way he didn't respect his previous chief of staff, and in many ways appreciates what he's doing but sort of like with a parent, sometimes a parent is doing what need to be done or you just realize at the gut level is the correct thing, but you're still frustrated and still kind of chafe at it. frustration to both sends. general kelly is not always happy with what the president is saying or doing or leaking to the media, and that's what he saw that prompted that tweet, but i can't point you to a specific article. >> and this is all interconnected. a, you lose a day of productivity by some way that people would look at the white house operation today to all the things we're covering tonight. b, bob corker is not just chairman of senate foreign relations and is a key player they're going to need for starters on tax reform. >> that's right. this is not someone the president can cast aside.

we saw that he was short republican votes for health care. >> yeah. they have an operating majority. >> they do. they control the senate. yet this president has not been able, in conjunction with the majority leader, to marshal members of his own party. attacking the former general seems to consider that going forward. this is a white house often tripped up by the president's tweets. there is great frustration there. there has not been more done on tax reforms. the hill is frustrated why the white house keeps getting their way on this. we have at least two significant foreign policy crises right now. the president is tweeting with the secretary of state in light of the nuclear threat posed by north korea as well as the imminent decision looming in iran over the nuclear pact there. this is a white house, that because of the president's inability to perceive, is not able to complete the promises he

made to the voters last year. >> do you take mr. bannon at his word that we see back home that you'll have trump people being voted in in that building behind you? >> the question is how many trump people will win the primaries last year. even in states like wyoming where a low-key senator john rosso is facing some possible challenges. they may see some primary rivals, but at the end of the day, the republican party, in many parts of the country, still is just starting to pick up this breitbart tint. it's still in many places, a supply side chamber of commerce party. bannon is trying to change the party wholesale. we'll see how far he can get

next year. >> so lucky to have the three of you to start things off tonight, robert acosta, ashley parker, john lemere. many thanks. can he fill the senate with this brand of republican he's been talking about? we'll talk about frightening details of life on the inside and how we are viewed these days. up next, the man in the news today because of the interview he conducted with the president for forbes that made a lot of news today. that and more when we continue on a tuesday night.

welcome back. president trump still insists the russians had nothing to do with the 2016 election, and he says we should secure the next elections in 2018 and 2020 from known russian interference attempts despite findings from all u.s. intelligence agencies that the kremlin tried to sway the election, he's waiting for the investigation on this front. he said, it would bother me greatly if that's the case and i look forward to seeing what the final reports are. trump also claimed he had been cleared in the russia investigation saying, quote, they also just said that there has been absolutely no collusion.

they just said that. yesterday. two days ago. senate. there has been no collusion. i didn't speak to russians. here, however, is the quote he's talking about. this is chairman richard burr, north carolina, from last week. >> the issue of collusion is still open, that we continue to investigate both intelligence and witnesses, and that we're not in a position where we will come to any type of temporary finding on that until we complete the process. >> president trump also addressed his unusually high staff turnover of late saying, and this is a bit of a minefield here, i have some that i haven't been happy with and frankly right now i'm not thrilled with. i'm disappointed. i thought they would be better. back with us, associated press john lemere, and one of the two journalists who, as they say, was in the room for these interviews. we've all chewed on the quote for iq testing.

you were there looking the man in the eye. was there mirth, frivolity, sarcasm? >> it is a real treat to ask the president, do you think secretary tillerson called you a moron? he waited a few seconds, gave a more general answer, and i then asked a specific question about what secretary tillerson really did call him. he went right into it. i laughed after it and he didn't laugh. so whether or not that's a joke or not, it's probably only in he went right into it. i laughed after it and he didn't laugh. so whether or not that's a joke or not, it's probably only in president trump's heart to really know. but i took it as a funny but he was not laughing. >> this is the writer sitting next to you today who reminded associated press readers the remark landed with a distinct

hit of malice. it sounds like that's about it. >> yeah, i think i got that one right. >> for a fake news organization, score one for the associated press. just kidding. you had a conversation with the president which means you were on a tour of kind of the emotional landscape. >> yes. >> as they say, how did you find him? >> i've interviewed him many times over 20 years. >> i know you have. >> he was actually in good spirits and he was very controlled, and he was fairly on message. so he was actually quite cogent and a lot of things he knew what he wanted to say. we were talking a lot about economics, but again, there are some things when you go to staffing, when you go to trade deals -- >> russia. >> -- when you go to russia. again, i specifically pointed out that his own homeland security department has already told states, 21 states, that they were infiltrated by the russians. and i specifically said, okay, this has happened. what do you think? and he went to that answer

about, if there's proof, i will be mad about it, but i want to see the proof. >> the president has always refused to acknowledge this. in his mind it is the idea of legitimacy, right? if there is any suggestion that a foreign power was involved whether it was to help him or just meddle at all, he just can't handle that. he said that repeatedly in public and in private. >> you said something the other night that was so interesting about your time with forbes, compiling a list of the forbes 400. of all the people whose wealth you have listed, and some of it is speculation based on available documents. you said one person on the list has been called to mitigate the findings. >> we wrestle with this annually and we said before he has run for president. this is not new information. donald trump cares more about where he ranks in the forbes 400 than anyone in the 45-year history. there have been about 600 people

that have cycled through the forbes 400 and one person who really cares where he falls is donald trump. we used to have, at forbes, what we called the donald trump rule. whatever donald trump tells you, you divide by three and that is probably what he's really worth. >> it was mentioned tonight alongside his penchant for measurement, of all things. he needed a bracket to measure himself against tillerson and he chose iq. which is really something you don't hear discussed in society. >> we talk about it in the article. numbers are very important to donald trump. again, it explains a lot. it explains his obsession about crowd size. it explains why every time there is a bad poll he texted a messenger. he's a businessman who has

always been about the gut. where most businesses are looking at data and they're making decisions based on the data, donald trump is one who goes by instinct and gut and looks for numbers to justify his gut. that's a common thread in a lot of things we're seeing. in his presidency, he's looking for numbers to validate what he thinks he already knows. >> even if it means comparing his height with a senator from tennessee. >> liddle. >> jonathan, thank you, as always. on the crest of breaking news today and discussing it with a national and global audience. really appreciate it, gentlemen. we'll take a break and coming up, mark kristof is here. he's here with sobering revelations about what people in pyongyang think about a nuclear war with our country. that and more when we continue. sometimes the best time is time you make for yourself. aveeno® daily moisturizing lotion with active naturals® oat. locks in moisture to improve skin wellness in just one day. aveeno® naturally beautiful results®

hi, i'm the internet! you knoarmless bowling.lt?

ahhhhhhhh! you know what's easy? building your website with godaddy. get your domain today and get a free trial of gocentral. build a better website in under an hour.

after 18 holes of golf, i can tell you this without any hesitation. the president is committed to denying north korea the ability to hit america with a nuclear weapon. does that mean we go to war? no. does that mean that war is possible? yes. >> those comments from senator lindsey graham come on the heels of his golf outing with the president yesterday. tonight we learn the president met with his national security team today, and this is important. a white house statement said in part, quote, the briefing and discussion focused on a range of options to respond to any form of north korean aggression or, if necessary, to prevent north korea from threatening the united states and its allies with nuclear weapons.

that last thing, by the way, taken as a reference to a preemptive attack of some sort on the north. also tonight nbc news is exclusively reporting the north korean regime targeted the u.s. power grid with spearfishing companies with malware. his piece in the "new york times" this weekend, inside north korea and feeling the drums of war. it gives us an inside look of that nation. he has just returned from there. nick, can you share with the audience what you found in the context of the brinksfield talk from here. >> i think the president is trying to intimidate the north koreans with his talk of war.

in fact, it's having the opposite effect. so north koreans everywhere are talking about it and that's because the north korean propaganda is trying to leverage the president's comments with buttressing their own narrative, that they need these nuclear weapons to defend themselves. everywhere you go in the north korean capital, there is a mobilization i had not seen on previous trips, there is talk of war being imminent, and what i found most eerie is there is talk that such a war would not only be survivable, but they would actually emerge victorious. and you don't know whether they believe it. you would hope that their leaders would not believe it, but there is this sad history of leaders becoming deceived by their own propaganda. >> have we become inured with this casual talk of war between north korea and the united states? remind how many artillery tubes are buried and aimed at the south. >> there are about 11,000 artillery tubes that are aimed at the south. there are more in other parts of

the country. but -- and so just those artillery tubes -- u.s. general gary luck estimated that there would be a million casualties from another war and a trillion dollars in damage. but those estimates are outdated because those don't involve nuclear weapons. so the latest estimates are that on the very first day of another war, there would be a million deaths. just let that sink in. so i completely agree with you, that of all the things that could go terribly wrong in the next few years, i think the thing we need to be much more conscious of is another war with korea. i think it's unlikely, but

absolutely possible. and after my visit to north korea, i came to believe it may be more likely than we would like to think. >> there is part of the north korean psyche in that of kim jong-un and his father before him that craved validation. the verbiage from president trump, some of it on a daily basis, does that equal validation? >> i think that -- it sounds strange to say this, but i think there is actually some parallel at this point in that i think both president trump and kim jong-un are somewhat insecure and prone to immediately escalate. and when you have two leader who are both prone to escalate and both have nuclear weapons, then that creates an enormously dangerous dynamic, and rather than being intimidated -- each side is trying to intimidate the other and each side is

escalating. we sent some b-4 bombers off the coast. north korea did not try to intercept them, but they might. if one of their planes get shot down, maybe they'll accept that or maybe they'll fire off some artillery tubes. >> have we already crossed the threshold into living with a de facto nuclear north korea? >> so -- i mean, north korea already has perhaps 20 nuclear warheads, perhaps as many as 60. it has -- probably has the ability to deliver them in the region. it may have the ability to deliver them already to parts of the u.s. we don't really know. the last best hope would be some type of a deal that would stop testing of its missiles and its nuclear weapons. if we don't get that, then could we live with deterrents?

we have deterred them reasonably well from invading the south, from using chemical and biological weapons. it might work. on the other hand, we didn't deter them from blowing up a south korean airliner, for example. there are limits to deterrents. is it better than a war that would kill a million people on the first day? every president until now, since 1969 when richard nixon had to learn how to respond to a plane being shot down, every president has decided war is not a feasible option. president trump seems to be moving in a different direction. >> on that ominous note, as we urge our viewers to look up the journalism that came out of this last trip from nicholas to north korea. welcome back. we'll be back with much more, including the fracture among the republicans in the senate and the house, right after this.

it is incumbent on them to back president trump's plan but you don't see it. what you saw corker say today is what they talked about on capitol hill. i said, i'm going after the republican establishment and we're going after them. they'll take on incumbents in every state and the democrats after that. you said, nobody is safe. we're coming after them and we're going to win. >> that was steve bannon last night. that got a lot of attention of people today. steve bannon calling war on the establishment. he's plotting primary challenges against every republican senator up for reelection with the lone exception, it seems to be, of ted cruz. it's a strategy that worked in

the alabama special election earlier this month. the bannon-backed candidate judge roy moore beat out senator luther strange. bannon is hoping for a repeat of a much larger scale in 2018. we're going to talk about this tonight, and joining us to do so, two favorites. cornell velcher and david jolly, republican congressman from the great state of florida. gentlemen, welcome to you both. david, you're getting the first question. what if you get a subset of people who, when they have to choose, put r after their names, but they come into washington as part of a kind of bannon nationalist trump wing, and you go from having a controlling majority of senate and house to

maybe this fractured party? >> well, and i think that's a reality. the concerning moment tonight is the reason this is newsworthy is because we are living through trump's republican party. bob corker would not be a news story if it wasn't the fact that he was challenging what is the norm of the republican party right now. and that is what we are living through and deciding, is this a temporary anomaly of the republican party or is there a permanency to this renting of the republican party of donald trump right now? and it is a very frightening moment for establishment republicans, but the reality is, establishment republicans are losing. there are no republicans in washington, d.c. right now going back to their district saying, vote for me because i have distanced myself from donald trump. if anything, they're going home trying to prove that they have saddled up with donald trump, and that suggests that this is donald trump's republican party and steve bannon is empowered by that.

>> okay. so cornell, you've always been a fair dealer and you've been in democratic politics long enough to have any cockiness drained from you -- >> zero cockiness. >> -- how do you do this with the primaries and won't they lose a couple followers as well? >> taking the democrat and republican label off, this is a problem for the country, right? you see the civil war that's all is foul and all is fair. there is something not right in

civil war could hurt our the universe here, and brian, it's not only a danger to republicans, it's a danger to our country, because republicans are in charge of most of our government right now and this civil war could hurt our governing. when you have -- especially in the house where you have most of the house seats right now where incumbents aren't really challenged in the general election, they're challenged in the primary, and this drives the country further to the extreme of one side or the other with they see challenges in the primaries, i don't think that makes for good governing. now, from a democratic standpoint, i think it does offer opportunities. when you have -- and i think on cnbc, they had a poll out today or yesterday showing where president trump's numbers are dropping by double digits in many of the states. and this is important in states like arizona and nevada where

you do have senate republicans who are in really tough races, right? and the idea that you're going to challenge sitting incumbents and drive the party further to the right in states where, quite frankly, they're not alabama, right? they're not mississippi. you have states in the midwest and you have states on the coast where you do have republican incumbents who have threaded a needle and they're sort of conservative, but thai been able to hold moderate independent voters. that far right wing that bannon is talking about, i don't see how they hold onto independents. when you look at where donald trump's support has dropped the most, it hasn't dropped among base republicans. it has dropped dramatically among independent voters who are turned off by what they're seeing. i think it is potentially disastrous for the republican party, but also disastrous for america, this challenge that

bannon is putting forward. >> so congressman, come off that point. is this a coming storm that it's going to come, anyway, and it has to get out of the system of these forces within your party? >> sure. so, look, republicans are dancing with the devil right now, but it's the only date they have at the ball, if you will. i would also say, though, republicans -- or democrats are not organized, either. the democrats are just as disorganized as republicans right now, it's just we have a seat at the table to see the republicans' disorganization. but the reality is, donald trump has not built a coalition of republicans since he got to office. he's only lost his base or lost from 40% down to 32%. and so what do republicans do going into this? it is an opportunity, as cornell said, for democrats to capture, but i don't think they're there yet. >> cornell, in 30 seconds or less, what do democratic candidates, house and senate, across this country need to do?

>> we need to move away from this ideal that there is simply an economics message to this, because that corps of voters that are anxious about america's future, hillary clinton won the vote of economics. we have to speak to the people in this country and there's a racial divide. democrats have to have a message that says white collar workers and blue collar workers, hispanics and whites are not your enemy in this. >> you're not going to win that on mainstream, cornell. >> if not, god help us. >> former congressman david jolly and cornell velcher, easily the best accessorized man in politics. >> it's a low bar. coming up next, we get conditions out west. that and more when "the 11th hour" continues.

i just saved thousands on my loan at lendingtree.com. in less than a minute, i found out how much home i can afford. i like how you shop for loans the same way you shop for flights online. i didn't realize at lendingtree you can save money on almost any sort of loan. i consolidated my credit card debt with a personal loan. i found a new credit card with 0% interest for 15 months. you just shop, compare, and save. and it's all free. go to lendingtree right now and start saving.

17 people confirmed dead, more than 18le 0 people are still unaccounted for tonight as 10s of thousands of acres continue to burn across mostly nourn california, wine country. frts wildfires have destroyed over 2,000 structures, some of them landmarks, and over 20,000 people are on the move tonight, having been forced to leave their homes. before and after photos tell the story. some neighborhoods are simply gone. satellite photos show the smoke plumes. and remember, they flow east to west because of the santa ana winds blowing down from the mountains on to the sea. night satellite images show how much the earth is on fire. listen to the napa county fire chief today talking about the scope and the sprawling and relentless firefight. >> the fires are still out there. they are still actively growing.

we will be updating daily as we get information. resources still continue to be limited. we have folks p o the firing line started on their third shift now because they've not been able to relieved. we're having to share resources as will there are many priorities and communities being affected by this. >> remember, three shifts means 24 hours at a time, not stopping. california can congressman mike thomp sop who reps napa and spokesmana counties surveyed the damage today and said this. that's saying a lot. with us tonight from santa rosa, california, nbc news correspondent joe fryer. joe, update asus as of tonight. >> reporter: the winds did die down considerably today.

the fires droint grow. the acreage numbers didn't really get any higher. still, for most of the major fires, the containment is zero and the forecast is calling for wind gusts to pick up again for the next couple of days, so the danger is far from over ch we spent today in santa rosa's coffee park community and h that's where entire neighborhoods are gone. you can stand in one spot and every single house that was there is no longer there. people digging through rubble trying to see what they can save. we ran into brian who was look for his mom's ruby ring. believe it or not, he found it, largely intact. he also found her tea cups, which was important to her. she has cancer. >> the hardest hit community santa rosa and one of the saddest stories today, among

those who didn't make it, a couple ages 98. the fire moved too quickly for them to get out. coming up, was that a rule change we witnessed on live television from the white house today? . hi, i'm the internet! you know what's difficult? armless bowling. you got this, jimmy!

you know what's easy? building your website with godaddy. pick a domain name. choose a design. you can build a website in under an hour. now that's a strike! get your domain today and get a free trial of gocentral. build a better website in under an hour. i love you.

the people of this country want tax cuts. they want lower taxes. we're the highest taxed nation in the world. >> last thing before we go. a rare chance to witness a new fact being born. we want to show you just one exchange out of many in today's white house briefing. it's about taxes and a claim the president is fond of making and one reporter who's just not having it anymore and the press secretary slipping in a new word. >> follow up on taxes. the president repeated this claim in the oval office today sading we're the highest taxed nation in the world. why does he keep saying this? it's not true overall. >> we are the highest taxed, corporate tax in the developed economy. that's a fact. >> that's not what the president said. >> that's what he's talking about. we are the highest taxed country in the developed economies across the globe. >> so that's accurate but the president keeps recenting this claim. >> we are.

>> he said we're the highest taxed nation in the world. >> the high hesse taxed corporate nation seems zipts to me. >> that's how that happens. so we can agree on one set of facts, the united states is not the highest taxed nation in the world. that distinction according to the bbc belongs to denmark. but of course then you get too live never denmark. it was reported today "the correct statement is that the simplt has the highest statutory income tax rate in the developed world but a recent npr fact check notes what a lot of people already know, many businesses end up paying far less than the statutory rate. we'll leave it at that. that is our broadcast for tuesday night. thank you so much for being with us.

good night from msnbc news headquarters tonight. ♪ the danger has grown in california, deadly wildfires are raging destroys entire neighborhoods and killing at least 17 people. officials fear that number will grow. plus, several major hollywood stars breaking your silence accusing movie mogul harvey weinstein of sexual harassment. and in a new report three women claim they were sexually assaulted. and nbc document, showing north korea taking an aim contain with documents containing malware.